‘Update: 17/06/2024
17 days to go – Here’s what you need to know.
According to Boris Johnson’s biographer Andrew Gimson, the disgraced former PM is once again plotting a return to UK politics.
Johnson reportedly plans to seize upon the chaos of a monumental Conservative defeat on July 4th. As Nigel Farage is expected to make a power play for the Conservative leadership, Johnson will ostensibly head him off in a battle for the soul of the new opposition. Pick your populist poison.
Either way, the opposition is going to be a circus. But a disillusioned and fractured Conservative party presents ideal conditions for Johnson, long known as an “insurgent” operator that feeds off discontent to win “protest” votes – as he did successfully in 2019.
It’s another indication that voting out the Conservatives, while necessary for democracy and basic functionality of government, is not going to solve our problems overnight. Five years in opposition will present ample time for either Farage, Johnson (or both, should the unholy duo find common ground again as they have in the past) to build a new and reformulated right-wing populist movement.
Keep in mind that they could potentially be boosted by the ascendant far-right in Germany, France, Italy, and Spain – as well as Donald Trump in the White House. Starmer’s Labour, should they win as predicted in July, will face unprecedented challenges from that corrupt and lawless coalition, potentially at an international scale. Expect the British press, American social media companies, libertarian think-tanks and the UK’s right-wing dark money networks to be working overtime.
The real fight for democracy may still lie ahead.
In other news…
- Analysis of guests over the last 9 years of BBC Question Time in a recent Cardiff University study found that right-wing voices are over-represented on Britain’s widely-watched political discussion show.
- Reporters noticed that Labour has removed the line “The NHS is not for sale” from its Manifesto. Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting has reportedly received roughly £175,000 in donations from the private health sector since January 2023.
- Farage is once again under fire for endorsing debunked conspiracy theories about Donald Trump’s 2020 US election loss, citing “ballot harvesting” as the reason for Biden’s victory, and defending Trump’s encouragement of the January 6th insurrection attempt.
- The Reform party is set to unveil its “contract with the British public” later on today. It’s expected to centre on abolishing TV license fees, and fighting “political correctness”.
All the very best,
The Open Britain Team‘
Okay, is anyone on the left really surprised that yet another university media monitoring study has found political bias on the Beeb, and particularly in the selection of guests for Question Time? This comes after studies by Glasgow University inter alia that the BBC showed a bias against the left, as well as other studies that showed that on news reporting, Conservatives and people from the financial sector were given more airtime than Labour MPs and trade unionists. But the right still goes on about how the Beeb is biased against them. There’s a walrus-moustached bloke on YouTube with very strong right-wing, Brexiteer views, who’s posted up videos claiming that Question Time is biased against the Conservatives and the panels are frequently packed with lefties while there is only one Tory to stand against them. He has then gone on to claim that left-wingers nevertheless mistakenly believe that it’s biased against them. Sometimes you wonder if they’ve been watching the same programmes we have.
I am alarmed, but not surprised, by the news that Labour removed the slogan ‘the NHS is not for sale’ from its manifesto and that Streeting has received £175,000 worth of donations from the private healthcare sector. It always seemed to me that the Blairites were as determined to sell off the NHS as the Tories, even while they denied it. Tony Blair has been demanding the inclusion of more private firms in the NHS, and it seemed to me that the strategy of using private firms to clear NHS waiting lists was a move towards privatisation.
Over the weekend Karin Smyth, Labour’s Shadow Health Minister and MP for Bristol South, clashed on local TV with Carla Denyer, the prospective Green candidate for Bristol Central. Smyth compared Denyer’s plans for increased funding for the NHS to Liz Truss’ disastrous mini-budget. But Denyer had done her research and cited a Nuffield Trust report stating that both the Labour and Conservative parties’ plans would leave the health service massively underfunded and create further problems with staffing and provision of services. Labour have plans that sound great, but I think that only the Greens can be trusted with the health service.
Farage has indeed put up videos laying out his plans for Britain. One’s half an hour long, the other about an hour and four minutes. I shall watch at least one of them to get an idea of what his policies are.
Tags: BBC, Boris Johnson, Brexit, Bristol Central, Bristol South, Cardiff University, Carla Denyer, Conservatives, Conspiracy Theories, Dark Money, Donald Trump, Donations, Elections, Financial Sector, Glasgow University, Gren Party, Karin Smyth, Keir Starmer, Labour Party, Liz Truss, Media Bias, NHS, NHS Privatisation, Nigel Farage, Nuffield Trust, Open Britain, Populism, Question Time, Reform Party, Social Media, Thinktanks, tony blair, Wes Streeting
Beastrabban\'s Weblog 
June 17, 2024 at 4:53 pm |
crikey the devil brigade is getting better and bigger both sides Tory labour they are just devils Indisguise look out the peasants better they had kept out Jeremy Corbyn not dissed him out of power
June 17, 2024 at 4:54 pm |
crikey the devil brigade is getting better and bigger both sides Tory labour they are just devils Indisguise look out the peasants better they had kept Jeremy Corbyn not dissed him out of power
June 17, 2024 at 5:36 pm |
The competition to make this the worst General Election in history for every parties campaign and campaigning has been well and truly won.
I genuinely thought 2019 couldn’t be beaten.
Analysis of all parties has been poor, and Reform, a party that currently has no MP’s, gets more airtime than the Greens or Lib Dems.
All political parties should be subject to fair impartial analysis, and any refusal due to them not wanting that sort of questioning should be highlighted.
As a side note, have you seen the reference to this blog on Rational Wiki on their article on The Telegraph reading Non-Historian?
June 19, 2024 at 8:19 pm |
Hi Jim – very interesting what you’ve said about Reform getting attention out of all proportion to its actual importance. Guy Debord’s Cat said something on his blog years ago about how the TV companies always give the extreme right more time and attention than democrats. He was talking about coverage of Oswald Mosley and the BNP’s Griffin. Farage is populist right, rather than an outright Fascist, but it does seem to be true with him as well. Do you think it’s all to do with public schoolboys who had the cane at school missing the hand of firm govenment?
June 17, 2024 at 5:49 pm |
Please, God, no! Are the Tory membership so delusional that they’ll support the man who goes against every kind of “traditional values” and morally screwed the country? If it hadn’t been for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, he would be instantly forgotten (but resurrected as an answer on Pointless a few years from now). And to think he’s a supposed Catholic- he’s got a lotta confessions to make.
See also this skewering article on his immorality from our formerly Crewe based acquaintance.
Zelo Street: Bozo Weds On The Cheap (zelo-street.blogspot.com)
June 19, 2024 at 8:12 pm |
Thanks for this, Mark. A lot of Tories really don’t like him either, in my experience. And with his numerous marriages and affairs, I can see he’s going to have to spend a lot of time in the confessional,, as you say.
June 20, 2024 at 6:12 pm
Most of Shyster Johnson’s most strident critics were conservative Christians. Viz. Steve Baker, Esther McVile, Desmond Swain and Tim Farron.
Tbf, given a lot has been said recently on the pro-Israel Right about a “Muslim voting block” has got me wondering how much of a voting block Evangelical Protestants are in this country- given there must surely now be as many of them as there are Muslims in Britain.